Applegreen gross profit up by a third to €56.9m

Gross profits at Irish petrol station chain Applegreen jumped by more than a third to €56.9m in the six months to the end of June.

This was up from €42.2m during the same period last year, an increase of 35pc.

According to the firm’s half year results released this morning the company’s adjusted earnings before deductions jumped from €7.5m to €10.7m while group revenue rose by 16pc to €517m.

Total profit for the period was €2.7m, up from €2.5m in the first half of 2014.

The results are the company’s first since it raised €65.2m in an IPO earlier this year.

Chief executive Bob Etchingham said: “Trading since the end of June has been positive and while we expect the rate of growth in H2 to be lower than H1, we are on track to deliver results in line with market expectations.”

“The group has delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2015 reflecting the positive contribution from site openings in the latter part of 2014 and the increased contribution from food driven by our upgrade programme.

He added: “Growth was evenly spread across both the Republic of Ireland and the UK, with the latter’s contribution also benefitting from the strength of sterling against the euro during this period.”